The President of Belgian Magistrates: Neoliberalism is a form of Fascism

11/07/2016

Neoliberalism is a species of fascism By Manuela Cadelli, President of the Magistrates’ Union of Belgium The
time for rhetorical reservations is over. Things have to be called by
their name to make it possible for a co-ordinated democratic reaction to
be initiated, above all in the public services.

Liberalism
was a doctrine derived from the philosophy of Enlightenment, at once
political and economic, which aimed at imposing on the state the
necessary distance for ensuring respect for liberties and the coming of
democratic emancipation. It was the motor for the arrival, and the
continuing progress, of Western democracies.
Neoliberalism is a form of economism in our day that strikes at every
moment at every sector of our community. It is a form of extremism.
Fascism may be defined as the subordination of every part of the State to a totalitarian and nihilistic ideology.I
argue that neoliberalism is a species of fascism because the economy
has brought under subjection not only the government of democratic
countries but also every aspect of our thought.The state is now at the disposal of the economy and of finance, which treat it as a subordinate and lord over it to an extent that puts the common good in jeopardy.
The austerity that is demanded by the financial milieu has become a
supreme value, replacing politics. Saving money precludes pursuing any
other public objective. It is reaching the point where claims are being
made that the principle of budgetary orthodoxy should be included in
state constitutions. A mockery is being made of the notion of public
service.
The nihilism that results from this makes possible the dismissal of
universalism and the most evident humanistic values: solidarity,
fraternity, integration and respect for all and for differences.
There is no place any more even for classical economic theory: work
was formerly an element in demand, and to that extent there was respect
for workers; international finance has made of it a mere adjustment
variable.
Every totalitarianism starts as distortion of language, as in the
novel by George Orwell. Neoliberalism has its Newspeak and strategies of
communication that enable it to deform reality. In this spirit, every
budgetary cut is represented as an instance of modernization of the
sectors concerned. If some of the most deprived are no longer
reimbursed for medical expenses and so stop visiting the dentist, this
is modernization of social security in action!continue reading...

About Me

As a kid I liked numbers and the sound of strings. I considered studying engineering but chose social sciences because of my interest in people. I combine a theoretical interest with a practical, social approach which brought me to the sphere of policy research. I am interested in reducing the disparity between poor and rich, between the powerful and the less powerful.
In 1973 and 1982 I lived in Latin America. In the mid-1980s, I was able to create an international forum to discuss the functioning of the international monetary system and the debt crisis, the Forum on Debt and Development (FONDAD). I established it with the view that the debt crisis of the 1980s was a symptom of a malfunctioning, flawed global monetary and financial system.
I was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the European Network on Debt and Development that was established at the end of the 1980s to help put pressure on European policymakers.
In 1990, before the beginning of the Gulf War, I cofounded the Golfgroep, a discussion group about international politics comprising journalists, scientists, politicians and activists that meets regularly.
The website of FONDAD is www.fondad.org